


Fierce Brigantes

by coffeestainsandcashmere



Category: The Eagle | The Eagle of the Ninth - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Confessions, Fluff, Guilt, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Misunderstandings, Rape Aftermath, Roman Britain, Slavery, Talking Through Feelings, implied Touch Starvation, not described in any detail, soft boys in love, the non-con stuff is very lightly alluded to but I wanted to tag it anyway just in case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29141319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeestainsandcashmere/pseuds/coffeestainsandcashmere
Summary: A snapshot between Marcus and Esca after the events of the movie are over and they are back at Uncle Aquila's house.
Relationships: Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca Mac Cunoval
Comments: 11
Kudos: 18





	Fierce Brigantes

**Author's Note:**

> I'm about 84yrs too late for the fandom, but here's my offering anyway. I've only seen the film, but I've got the book on order. Hope you enjoy this soft moment between the two of them.

“Marcus, you had to know I was pretending… back then… with the Seal People…” Esca said after what felt like hours of silence, sitting together on the sun-warmed stones of the terrace back at Uncle Aquila’s house. 

A sad look came across Marcus’ eyes and he shook his head minutely, still gazing out at the reed beds beyond. “I meant it when I said I thought I’d lost you. You’re so hard to read, Esca. Always. Even now, I —” he took a deep breath and sighed it out, his chest caving in on itself like a landslide into a river below. 

For a long time, Esca remained still until finally he said, “When… When I held you… on your knees before the Seal Prince… your hair in my fist and your throat exposed to him, you… you let yourself fall back against my legs. At the time I thought it was your way of saying you understood, that you knew I was pretending, that I’d never actually let him kill you, but… that’s not what it was at all, was it?”

Without a word, Marcus shook his head again. At last, he swallowed. “No. I thought… I thought that was it. I thought you’d gone over to them and given me up for the stupid, stubborn, prideful Roman I was. I thought I deserved it. I thought…” he took another ragged inhale and Esca’s heart cracked at the look on his face as he stared at a crack in the stones between them. “I thought it was a fitting place to die. With my father’s eagle gone —” he snorted and added with a wry look askance at Esca, “— little did I know it was only yards away from us then. I thought…” 

He turned his gaze to the clouds above and Esca watched his throat and the sharp jut of his Adam’s apple until he spoke again. 

“I thought it was what I deserved, in the end.”

A single tear spilled down Esca’s cheek and he found himself unable to bite back the sob that went with it. “I’m so sorry, Marcus. I’m so sorry you had to endure all that… because of me.”

“ _ They  _ did what they did to me, Esca, not you,” he growled, eyes flashing. “They’re the ones I blame, and we got our revenge. In the end. Besides, it’s no worse than I know you’ve endured at the hands of Romans.”

“But not  _ you _ , Marcus,” he wept, unable to stop the well-spring of fear and guilt and pain boiling up inside him. He collapsed sideways into Marcus’ shoulder, and the larger man encircled his arm around Esca and held him close to his chest. “Never you, Marcus,” Esca moaned. “You’ve always been fair to me, and I betrayed you.”

“No,” he hissed. “I’m a terrible actor, Esca. If you’d told me what was going on, what your plan really was, I would have given the game away faster than when you try to play me at cards. There’s a reason I lost all my clothes at dice to the other soldiers back when I first joined up - I can’t keep anything off my face. You did what you had to do to survive up there, and you got us both out alive. With the eagle, no less.  _ I  _ gave up on  _ you _ . You never  _ once  _ gave up on me. I know that now.”

“I’m so sorry,” he sobbed, clutching Marcus’ tunic in his fist and scrunching the fabric into a tight ball.

“Hush,” Marcus crooned, and suddenly his big hand came to rest gently on the crown of Esca’s head.

He didn’t mean to let out the little whimper, like a wounded animal, but Marcus heard it all the same. He repeated the gesture, stroking Esca’s hair until he finally slumped, exhausted, against the bulwark of Marcus’ chest, quivering all and panting softly. 

“I love you, Esca. I… have loved you for a long time. Since you first held me down on the table for the surgeon, I think. Maybe before that. But… I don’t blame you for anything, and I owe you a great deal. Everything…”

Esca had no words for that. He clung to Marcus and pressed his lips to Marcus’ collarbones, barely brushing the olive skin there until Marcus smiled and raised his chin with a mere fingertip. 

His eyes met Esca’s and lowered his head, and their lips met. 

“I love you,” Esca whispered between kisses, the tears still wet on his face. 

“I know,” rasped Marcus with a tiny, affectionate smile. “My fierce Brigantes. I love you too.”


End file.
